Column 22 – Vacation Get-Away by The FlyLady, Marla Cilley

What is it about going on vacation that makes it worth all the preparation and hassle? Is it getting away from the phone? I don’t think so; most of us have our personal cell phones. Is it getting to seeing new places? Maybe but many of us usually want to go back to old familiar areas. Is it the food? It could be, or is the fact that cooking is not hard in an efficient clean kitchen.

How about the people? They are usually the same ones you have at home. So what is it about being in a different place with the same people? Could it be that the surroundings do not choke you!

Hotel rooms are sparse: Two beds, a desk, one bathroom, a night table, one small closet, a little dining table and maybe a little refrigerator. Hey I am leaving the Television and video games out. Ignore them. Let’s say you rent a condo at the beach. It has a small kitchen, two to three bedrooms, a living area, a balcony, a couple of bathrooms and empty closets. The same thing for a house at the lake or a cabin in the woods; they have all the conveniences of home without ALL YOUR CLUTTER!!!

Oh it’s not clutter, it is your stuff, I can hear you yelling at me. Well your stuff makes you feel like you need to leave home to breathe. So what does that tell you? Your stuff is killing you. You are uneasy in your own home. Another word for uneasy is disease. Get it?? Your house has become a storage unit for your stuff, not a home.

This is why it feels so good to walk into a sparsely decorated room. The space frees you to breathe without you feeling closed in.

How do we get this vacation feeling in our cluttered homes? By evicting Clutter and Just-in-Case forever! These things have chased you away from your home. They have taken over your residence. They are squatters and it is time to take back your home and make it your sanctuary instead of a storage unit.

Start by Crisis Cleaning: we are attacking the surface clutter that is residing in our favorite hotspots. Spend 15 minutes in the Kitchen, then 15 in the living room and then 15 in the bathroom. Then you get to rest for 15 minutes. Don’t skip this step! It is the most important one.

I promise those few minutes are going to make a difference if you will get up and do it, instead of whining that 15 minutes is not enough time. The clutter will be out of sight and you will start to say to yourself that this doesn’t look half bad; even if the floors are dirty. Clutter is what makes your home look awful.

Oh you still don’t believe me; then do an experiment. Clear off your coffee table. I mean move everything off into a box and just stand back and look at it. How do you feel? The clean and clear is contagious. Now go put away, give away or throw away everything that is in that box.

You deserve to have a home that gives you a beautiful clean feeling. You can get that vacation get-away by taking babysteps to eliminate your clutter. Set your timer and allow that beautiful clean to put a smile on your face!